￼Austin Food Access: A Multimodal Aproach to Identifying Food Deserts

Food deserts, according to the USDA, are “urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food.” While there might be some food available, it is often unhealthy and of poor quality. Numerous life- threatening diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension are associated with poor diet and a lack of exercise. However, food deserts connect the built environment with the negative health effects of poor diet and exercise and high- light the overlap between public health and urban planning (Adams et al., 2010). Research on food deserts often focusses on identifying them and addressing the connection between access to healthy foods and low-income and minority populations, which are groups that are disproportionately affected by access to healthy food (Gordon et al., 2011; Smith & Morton, 2009; Raja et al., 2008). Other research also focusses on identifying food deserts in specific geographic areas, such as a particular city or state (Jiao et al., 2012). This research aims to map food access and identify food deserts in Austin, Texas based on multiple forms of transportation. This establishes the connection between food access and transit access. It is important to add transportation as an additional dimension of food access since many people in American cities are transit dependent and unable to access an area unless it is within walking distance, biking distance, or accessible by transit service. The primary implication of this research is that it provides an alternative method for identifying food deserts so that areas with limited access to healthy food can be identified more precisely and addressed effectively.